April 20 – Cairo, Egypt – Day 2. When we awoke in the morning we discovered that we had a very nice view from our sixteenth floor window. We are next door to the French embassy and have a great view down into the embassy's gardens. Just to the left is the Nile River and it looks like we're looking towards the south. No time to enjoy it as we are leaving the hotel to have breakfast on a Nile riverboat.
A short bus ride brought us to the dock. Well not actually a dock. There's a permanently moored ship that serves as a riverfront restaurant. Our riverboat is docked on the water side of this ship. Both are named Maxim. The riverboat could hold about 5 times a many people as we have but there aren't any other groups joining us. Just more evidence of the drop off in tourism here. The ride up the river was pleasant and the food was good so today is off to a good start.
The mix of traffic in downtown Cairo is interesting. Cars, trucks, semis, motorcycles, motor scooters, bicycles, ox carts, donkey carts, horse carts, horses, pushcarts and people all vying for space with each other. No skateboards, roller blades, roller skates or scooters were in evidence so I guess personal wheels are not popular. The reason is obvious; there are very few flat, smooth surfaces anywhere in the city. It would be almost suicide to attempt using any small-wheeled mode of motion here. There is a military presence in the town but it's pretty low key in most places, a strategically placed APC here and there and only a few tanks.
We are heading upriver, that is to say south, about 12 miles to Saqqara. The Nile is the only major river in the world that flows to the north. In Ancient Egypt the land of the living was on the east bank of the Nile and the land of the dead was on the west. Ancient Egyptian Necropolises (One would think that should be necropoli (like paparazzi for multiple paparazzo) but since the word ends in 's' preceded by an 'i' it's not.) are almost always on the west bank and the dead had to be taken across the river for burial.
Just to be on the safe side I'm going to copy some of my previous journal here but in smaller type in case you want to skip it.
"Perhaps a little should be said about the development of pyramids. In Egypt, the earliest proven pyramid builders, pyramids started out as 'mastabas' (Egyptian for table). They were rectangular shaped rock constructions set atop desert graves likely to keep the wind from blowing the sand away and exposing the body. Earlier graves had suffered this somewhat ignoble end. This was the earliest Egyptian grave structure."
Successive royalty wanted more and more important and permanent grave markers so they began to construct multi-level mastabas with each level getting a little smaller than the one above. When this structure gets to be at least three increasingly smaller mastabas one atop the other you have the mastabas successor, the 'step pyramid'. It wasn't until the pharaoh Khufu built the Great Pyramid at Giza that the steps were filled in and the structure was faced with marble to create the smooth sided type we currently refer to as a pyramid. His son, Kahfre's pyramid right next to his still has some of the facing stones intact at it's apex but all the facing stones of the Great Pyramid are gone.
Neither mastabas nor step pyramids have any internal features. They are solid structures, whereas the later type starting with Khufu has internal chambers and passageways. All the chambers and tunnels in mastabas and step pyramids are under the structure. Their lack of internal features makes them much less technically challenging to build."
Saqqara is the place where mastaba became a true pyramid and I've wanted to visit this site for years. You may have to forgive me if I go on and on about it. Not seeing it was the only reason I was disappointed when our stop in Egypt was cancelled. It's also the reason I'm very happy it was reinstated.
The first pyramid ever constructed was for King Zoser, the second pharaoh of the Third Dynasty around 2800 BC. It was conceived, designed and built by Zoser's vizier, Imhotep. You may recognize that name as it's been used in films many times to represent someone mysterious or threatening in mummy and other movies about Ancient Egypt. It's believed that Imhotep may also have been a physician. One of his major innovations was to build the tomb and funerary complex in stone. Up to this point they had been constructed with sun-dried brick.
The funerary complex he designed was large. He selected a very large plateau in Saqqara for the location. It was surrounded by a wall over 30 feet high that encloses an area of 182,000 square yards. The entrance to this wall is in the southeast corner of the complex and very narrow, you have to go in single file and one way at a time. Once through the entrance you enter directly into The Colonnade. There are 40 columns, twenty on each side of the passageway, and between each set of columns is a statue of King Zoser proclaiming him king of both Upper and Lower Egypt. This always seems backwards to me as Upper Egypt is south of Lower Egypt but it's at a higher elevation and is 'up the Nile'. The Colonnade ends in a rectangular hall whose ceiling was supported by 8 somewhat shorter columns. Most of the tall columns are only partly reconstructed. They have completely restored two of them and the ceiling stones in between to let you see what it would have looked like.
Since breaking with tradition was often seen as sacrilege back then he had the stones carved to simulate the older way of building. For example, roofs were made of palm trunks, split in half and laid across the tops of the walls. He had the stones of the ceilings carved to look like palm trunks. The columns were carved to look like bundles of reeds.
There are buildings on the northern and southern side of the complex. The building on the south is interesting because it is inscribed with graffiti from about 1200 BC, the oldest tourist records in existence. They discuss their admiration for the complex and its structures almost 1600 years after it was built. Now 4800 years later, here I am.
The pyramid itself is on the northern side of the courtyard but to prevent animosity between the two kingdoms they also had a tomb on the southern side, a ninety-two foot deep shaft leading to second tomb chamber for Zoser. There are two statues of him striding forward, one with the red crown and the other with the white crown.
The pyramid is constructed of 6 increasingly smaller mastabas stacked one atop the other to a height of about 200 feet. It's 400 feet by 360 feet at the base and took 20 years to complete (2663-2643 BC). The burial shaft beneath it is the same depth, ninety-two feet, as the pit for the southern tomb and ends almost exactly under the center of the pyramid. The pyramid is over the northern tomb because Zoser came from the Northern Kingdom, which is Lower Egypt. While the exterior of the structure is stone it has a hollow center. They would build a substantial wall to the size of that tier and then fill the center with stone rubble and mortar. Then build the next level's walls and fill again. The entire exterior was faced with Tura limestone from the eastern bank of the Nile but the casing stones are long gone with the exception of a few lone examples still in place.
Atop the entrance to the burial shaft was a funerary temple. This structure was on the northern edge of the pyramid and directly in line with the funerary entrance in the northern wall. This entrance was sealed after the body was inside leaving only the southeastern entrance for visitors. So in addition to being the first stone structure and the first pyramid, it's also the start of the attachment of a funerary temple to the pyramid. This will be expanded on later with the addition of the embalming temple and the causeway.
From the top of the Saqqara Plateau it's possible to see the Memphis Necropolis about six miles to the south. Memphis (on the east bank of the river) was the first capital of Ancient Egypt for 1,000 years and an important religious and commercial center for 3,000 years. The Memphis Necropolis (on the west bank of the river) has two very important structures. Sneferu, the founder of the Fourth Dynasty, established the Necropolis. Sneferu is the father of Khufu (Cheops) who built the Great Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one still standing.
It was in Memphis that the building of a true pyramid was first attempted. Sneferu was truly the father of what most people think of as Ancient Egypt even though he was the founder of the Fourth Dynasty. It's here where things really start to get interesting and we've known more about this era and later dynasties because there's more things reduced to writing of one kind or another.
Having seen the works of the previous dynasty and wanting to improve on them he set out to build a smooth sided pyramid with a very steep angle. The South Pyramid of Sneferu (aka Bent Pyramid) was started in 2597 BC. The original slope of the sides was 54 degrees 27 minutes. As construction progressed they discovered that the 619 x 619 foot base was not sufficiently strong to hold the weight of the upper structure and if building continued at that angle the structure would collapse. They reduced the angle to 43 degrees 22 minutes and finished the pyramid. Had they been able to continue at the original slope it would have been the tallest pyramid but it only reached 345 feet.
The Bent Pyramid is the first to have inner chambers and passageways. It has three chambers connected by descending passageways. The structure inside the pyramid is much like the tombs they used to dig under the previous step pyramids. It also has a funerary temple like the Step Pyramid but here for the first time there's another temple on the Nile River to be used for the embalming rituals, usually called a valley temple. A causeway that allows the spirit of the dead pharaoh to ascend to his final resting place connects these two temples. The valley temple also served as the dock for the boat carrying the pharaoh's body from the east bank to the west bank.
Undaunted, Sneferu tried again this time building the North Pyramid (aka The Red Pyramid). This one started out using the tried and true angle of 43 degrees 22 minutes and they put it on a larger, 724 x 724 foot base. It's actually about 3 feet shorter than the Bent Pyramid. The stone it's built from is very red in color and led to the nickname. This was the first truly successful true pyramid.
Our drive back toward Cairo to stop at Giza was interesting. Most of it was along water channels that allow for the irrigation of fields with water from the Nile. These channels are usually full of garbage and discarded household items. The guy in front of me in the bus kept sighting dead animals in the water. I did see one dead cow but that was it. Once in the city we drove past vendors with wagons and pushcarts selling artichokes, dates, bananas, oranges and a host of other fruits and vegetables.
When we arrived at Giza we went to an overlook point to see the pyramids from a distance. From the overlook from right to left we could see, the Pyramid of Menkaure (Mykerinus) with its three small satellite pyramids, the Pyramid of Khafre (Chefren) and the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) (aka the Great Pyramid). As I mentioned before I prefer the local names of things to those applied by the British so I'm using the Egyptian names instead of the (Greek). It was an awesome sight. Khufu's pyramid was in the early 2500s BC so it is almost 5,000 years old. The others are all newer and were built in increasingly smaller size. Khufu's is 480.9 feet tall, Khafre's is 470.8 feet tall and Menkaure's is only 216.5 feet tall. From most vantage points Kahfre's looks taller but it is built on higher ground. Khufu's was Kahfre's father and Menkaure's grandfather. You can tell Khufu's Great Pyramid from Kahfre's because the Great Pyramid does not have any of the smooth casing stones left on it and Kahfre's does at the very top. All three pyramids used to have smooth casing stones on each face making them totally smooth and impossible to climb. Over the centuries these stones have been stolen and used for other purposes. By the time Napoleon Bonaparte got to Egypt they pyramids look much like they do now.
Each pyramid has a Valley Temple that was on the west bank of the Nile. It was to this temple that the body was brought by boat across the Nile from the east bank, the side of the living. This temple was the beginning of the pharaoh's journey to the world of the gods. Right next to the pyramid, and some distance away from the Valley Temple, there was a second temple, the Mortuary Temple. It was here that the body was prepared in the process of mummification. This process is fairly complex and requires a number of months to complete. The riverside Valley Temple is connected to the Mortuary Temple by a causeway or processional that, in most cases, goes straight from one to the other. The exception is the pyramid of Khafre. His causeway runs at an angle from the pyramid to the river. The Sphinx is blocking the direct route to the riverbank. Our professor thinks that, while preparing to build the causeway they found the huge single boulder used to carve the Sphinx and decided to carve it into something rather than try to move it. This meant that they had to offset the route to the Valley Temple to miss the Sphinx. He thinks the face of the Sphinx was that of Khafre.
After we had some pictures at the overlook our bus took us down to the pyramids and parked in a lot between Khufu's and Khafre's. Khafre's Mortuary Temple is still partly standing but the others are not in very good shape. I walked the area admiring the sights and taking pictures. I started with Kahfre's including the mortuary temple and then I turned around and took a picture of the Sphinx and his Valley Temple. The sun was bad for that last shot but I wanted to preserve the relationship in my mind.
In 1954 they found a Solar Boat (not solar powered but in honor of the solar disk of divinity) while excavating near Khufu's pyramid. It may have been the boat that carried him across the Nile, no one knows for sure. It was in a great state of preservation and they built a special building to display it right next to his Great Pyramid. Diana wanted to see the boat this time so we got tickets and went inside. It's in an amazing state of preservation. The way out took us past the three Queen's Pyramids that are on the east side of the Great Pyramid. One is attributed to Sneferu's wife Queen Hetepherees the mother of Khufu. The other two are to wives of Khufu, Queen Hensutsen (not only his wife but also his half-sister and mother of Khafre) and Queen Merityetes. They are very small by comparison but I had to go through them to get to the east side of the Great Pyramid to get a good picture.
I have to admit that I'm having as tough a time describing this visit as I was the last. I am still awed and on sensory and emotional overload from the sights I am seeing. Maybe because I've always been interested in Ancient Egypt and have read so much on it but I don't think so. It's just amazing in and of itself.
After about 45 minutes here between the two large pyramids we got back on the bus and drove to the valley parking lot to see the Sphinx and the Valley Temple of Khafre. I thought I was on overload up the hill, but again this was that doubled and redoubled. When you stand facing the Sphinx, it lines up directly with the eastern face of Khafre's pyramid. You can see the causeway on the left angling toward it from the ruins of the Valley Temple. It's giving me chills just thinking about the scene.
The Sphinx played a role in the later history of Egypt. Remember all these pyramids and the Sphinx were built during the IV Dynasty (2620-2500 BC) of Ancient Egypt. In the XVIII Dynasty (1580-1314 BC), pharaoh Thutmose IV legitimized his dubious claim to the throne by saying that he had a dream while sleeping between the paws of the Sphinx. The god of the Sphinx, Horem-Akhet (Horus of the Horizon) came to him and said that if he kept the sand from overwhelming the Sphinx he would make him pharaoh. He built the retaining walls and carved a pink granite stele 13 feet tall to commemorate his dream. He placed the stele between the front paws of the Sphinx and I saw the top of it while we were there. It's still in place. The XVIII Dynasty has two other famous pharaohs, Hatshepsut (the only female pharaoh) and Tutankhamun, King Tut. There's a small temple just next to the Sphinx that is currently under excavation and some reconstruction.
Just south of the Sphinx are the remains of the valley temple of Khafre. There's little more than the large base stones still intact, but they form a sizeable plaza about 30 feet above the ground elevation next to it. There are all sorts of people here from a multitude of countries. The most interesting are the Yemeni women. They wear a robe with a head covering attached that has a small slit in it for them to look out through. They wear all black including black gloves so you can't see their hands. Seems like it would be oppressively hot inside this outfit but since they're from Yemen I guess they're used to hot. It was a grand sight and I took at least 60 pictures of various aspects of the Sphinx. On the way back to the bus a young boy approached us selling envelopes of postcards. The quality of them was not very good but both Diana and I were so taken with him that we bought some. Later Diana told me that she would have just given him the money but it seemed more appropriate to let him conduct his normal business.
From Giza we went to the Mina Hotel for a buffet lunch. The main part of the hotel is in what used to be a private villa right next to the pyramids. The rooms are mainly in extended building going out from the villa. I'm sure it's expensive and the lunch was very good. The gardens surrounding the hotel are very pretty and the view of the Great Pyramid through the palms in front of the lobby entrance was spectacular.
After lunch it was time for the long drive to Port Said where we will rejoin the ship. It won't be for long however because early tomorrow morning it's back on the bus for a two day overland trip in Israel.
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